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Thursday, September 10, 2015

Shell leaves climate project it helped set up amid Arctic drilling row

Sep 10th, 2015

Shell has been forced to leave a Prince of Wales climate change project which it helped found after a row over the oil company’scontroversial drilling programme in the Arctic. The departure from the Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leader Group is another embarrassing setback for the oil and gas company, which has been battling to preserve its reputation in the face of a vociferous and growing campaign against its operations in the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska. Greenpeace said the Anglo-Dutch group was rapidly becoming a pariah in the business world.

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Groningen gas production challenged in Dutch court

Sep 10th, 2015

by John Donovan.

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THE HAGUE, SEPT 10 | BY TOBY STERLING

(Reuters) – A Dutch high court on Thursday began hearing complaints from groups seeking to reduce or stop gas production at the Groningen gas field, Europe’s largest, to reduce the danger of earthquakes.

No date has been set for a ruling by the Council of State, but a court official said it would likely come in late autumn.

Work at Groningen has become increasingly controversial as earthquakes linked to it have become more intense, causing billions of euros of damage to buildings.

No physical injuries have been reported from the quakes, the largest of which was 3.6 on the Richter scale, but the country’s Safety Board in February determined that the government had systematically underestimated the danger to citizens.

Posted in: Environment, Exxon Mobil, Gas, Groningen Earthquakes, Litigation, NAM,Netherlands, Reuters, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Environment · ExxonMobil · Gas · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell

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Riled Locals Fight Output From Europe’s Largest Gas Field

Sep 10th, 2015

by John Donovan.

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Groningen gas field produces 61 percent of Dutch fuel

Complainants say gas extraction has caused earthquakes

By Kelly Gilblom: BLOOMBERG.COM: Sept 10, 2015

A Dutch court is set to hear arguments that production from Europe’s largest natural gas field should be suspended because of earthquakes linked to extraction.

The Netherlands has progressively cut the amount of gas won from the Groningen field in the north amid protests over the tremors, with the Economy Ministry in June slashing this year’s output cap by 29 percent. The Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State will hear about 40 appeals from local political parties, environmental organizations and individuals against production from the area on Thursday, and possibly Friday, before making a final ruling in October or November.

Posted in: Bloomberg, Environment, Exxon Mobil, Gas, Groningen Earthquakes,Litigation, NAM, Netherlands, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Environment · ExxonMobil · Gas · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell

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Shell CEO says only ‘something cataclysmic’ could stop BG deal

Sep 10th, 2015

by John Donovan.

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Sep 9 2015, 14:43 ET | By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) CEO Ben van Beurden has told investors privately that only “something cataclysmic” – i.e., “if people stopped using energy” – could derail the company’s planned takeover of BG Group (OTCPK:BRGXF, OTCQX:BRGYY), WSJ reports.

The episode is among the latest attempts by top Shell execs to sell investors worried that the deal may fall through; BG shares trade at a discount to the Shell cash and share offer, concerns that Australian and Chinese regulators could set high hurdles and, more broadly, that the persistently low oil prices could yet lead Shell to rethink the merger are dampening sentiment.

Posted in: Australia, Ben van Beurden, BG Group, China, Gas, Oil Prices, Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Tagged: Australia · Ben van Beurden · BG Group · China · Gas · Royal Dutch Shell Plc ·Seeking Alpha

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Shell bringing world’s deepest floating oil production vessel to Gulf of Mexico

Sep 10th, 2015

by John Donovan.

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By Jennifer Larino, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune: 9 Sept 2015

Royal Dutch Shell has launched its first floating oil production,storage and offloading vessel in the Gulf of Mexico. The facility will operate in 9,500 feet of water, making it the deepest of its kind in the world.

The vessel — named Turritella after a genus of sea snails with a long conical, spiraled shell — is part of the company’s multibillion-dollar Stones development about 200 miles southwest of New Orleans in the ultra-deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The facility is expected to start operations in early 2016.

Posted in: Gulf of Mexico, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, United States.
Tagged: Gulf of Mexico · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell

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Right-wing conservatives never tire of saying people are paid what they’re worth.

United Airlines · Trending

Robert Reich added 3 new photos via Facebook.com.

8 hrsEdited

Right-wing conservatives never tire of saying people are paid what they’re worth. So what do they make of Jeff Smisek (below, top), the CEO and chairman of United Airlines, who was just fired for bribing a public official -- and yet is walking away with a $4.9 million separation payment? Smisek didn't even make money for United. The airline has been crippled with operational problems since its merger with Continental, mounting customer complaints, and a standoff with its unions.

An internal investigation by United revealed Smisek’s involvement in a scheme to give personal favors to David Samson (below left), the former chairman of the New York-New Jersey Port Authority, in order to get the Authority to do favors for the airline. (The payoff came in the form of United reinstituting a money-losing flight to an airport near Samson’s South Carolina weekend home, which even Authority officials nicknamed “the chairman’s flight” and which United discontinued as soon as Samson resigned.)

Samson, you may remember, had been appointed by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (below right) and resigned in March 2014 amid charges he and his underlings had closed lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge, at the direction of Christie and Christie’s underlings, to punish a mayor who hadn’t supported Christie’s reelection.

Payoffs to public officials are obviously a form of corruption. Payoffs to ousted CEOs are another form of corruption. Closing a public bridge as a political vendetta is a third form of corruption. Corruption doesn’t end until corrupters and the corrupted are punished. If Smisek was involved in paying off Sampson, both should go to jail. If Chris Christie had anything to do with closing the George Washington Bridge as a political vendetta, he should be jailed as well. Meanwhile, Smisek’s separation agreement should be clawed back, as should his pay since he became CEO. And United’s major shareholders should sack United’s board of directors.

What do you think?

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